Archive for February 5th, 2013

What a great game that was. I mean, it sucks that we lost… but if you play like that for 65 minutes you’re not going to lose many games. This was by far and away the best game that the Flames have played in a long, long time. Like years… they had 47 shots! Calgary’s second line had 20 shots, outshooting the entire Chicago roster (who had 19 shots total).

Does anyone remember 47 shots by the Flames? That was the most saves Ray Emery has ever made. Calgary outshot Chicago 24-6 in the third period. The Flames were dominant and looked like they had the game in hand when they took the lead with 35 seconds left in the game. However, the Blackhawks tied the game with three seconds left and Emery sitting on the bench.

Unfortunately there were only two things that would cause them to lose. One, Kiprusoff lets in a bad goal or gets a bad bounce, the former has happened a lot in this young season. Or two, it goes to a shootout. The Hawks were just hanging on for the last 25 minutes of this game knowing that the minute overtime ended – even though they were getting torn apart on the ice – they would regain momentum in a second, and become favoured to win.

Here is what Chicago coach Joel Quenneville had to say: “They’ve got to call the cops after that performance. (Emery) stole two points. He was spectacular. I’ve never ever been outplayed, outchanced like that in my life. That was a special performance and it continued on in the shootout.”

And this is the reason I can’t stand the shootout. It makes whatever happened in the game moot, and the outcome is dependent on 8 guys rather than 50.

First of all, I’ve been away. Apologies for not doing by tri-weekly gripe about Calgary.

Second of all, what is going on with Kipper? I mean, we expect a slow start from Iggy, but every game that both Kipper and Iggy take off is a game we’ll lose. Every time.

There is no excuse for losing this game. Colorado was tired, they had no confidence, they were being out-played, and Calgary absolutely fell apart in the last 5 minutes. Kiprusofk’s two soft goals was the difference here.

The bright spot so far is the chemistry between Juri Hudler and Roman Cervenka. But why Matt Stajan is allowed to play in the NHL is beyond me. I really believe that Stempniak or Jones or even Roman Horak would be better suited to play with those two.